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The Healdsburg Jazz Festival will take a year off in 2011 and may undergo some changes in size and format before it returns.

The festival's five-member board of directors decided Monday to put the event on hiatus and eliminate festival founder Jessica Felix's position as artistic director to cut costs, said board chairwoman Pat Templin.

Introduced by Felix in 1999, the festival has generated national acclaim and drawn as many as 5,000 fans to Healdsburg for up to 10 days of performances by big-name jazz stars, including saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianists Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner and George Cables.

"I had no warning," she said. "I want to continue my work with jazz. I will be staying in the area for the time being. I'm not sure what I'll be doing."

Felix, who also operates the Art and All That designer jewelry gallery in Healdsburg, earned an annual salary of $50,0000 <NO1><NO>as the festival's artistic director last year. In the early years of the event, the position was unpaid.

The festival has operated at a deficit of $30,000 a year for the past three years, Templin said.

Surplus funds covered the shortfall in 2008, but not in 2009 and 2010, Templin said.

"The economy has had a huge impact on us in terms of the money sponsors and individuals feel they can donate," Templin said.

The annual operating budget for the festival has ranged from $300,000 to $450,000.

The one program that the festival definitely plans to continue next year is Operation Jazz Band, a week-long workshop that introduces fifth-graders at six schools to jazz music and ends in a public concert.

The festival, devoted to pure jazz rather than "smooth jazz" or other pop-music iterations, held its 12th annual event last June 4-13 at a variety of venues, including wineries, cafes, parks and the Raven Theater.

Templin said the board will survey the community and potential supporters to come up with a sustainable format for the festival in the future, but said the Healdsburg event wouldn't imitate the Sonoma Jazz + festival, which headlines rock and pop acts and very little jazz, if any.

"We will not use the Sonoma Jazz + model," she said.

Templin is a business consultant, jazz fan and festival supporter who recently moved from Mill Valley to Washington, D.C.

The board also includes Healdsburg area leaders Howard Wollner, a retired Senior Vice President of Starbucks Coffee Company; Doug Lipton, environmental scientist and founder of the Lipton Environmental Group; Circe Sher, co-owner of Healdsburg Hotel and h2hotel; and Ernie Shelton, co-owner of Shelton's Market.

The Healdsburg Jazz Festival will take a year off in 2011 and may undergo some changes in size and format before it returns.

The festival's five-member board of directors decided Monday to put the event on hiatus and eliminate festival founder Jessica Felix's position as artistic director to cut costs, said board chairwoman Pat Templin.

Introduced by Felix in 1999, the festival has generated national acclaim and drawn as many as 5,000 fans to Healdsburg for up to 10 days of performances by big-name jazz stars, including saxophonist Charles Lloyd and pianists Cedar Walton, McCoy Tyner and George Cables.

"I had no warning," she said. "I want to continue my work with jazz. I will be staying in the area for the time being. I'm not sure what I'll be doing."

Felix, who also operates the Art and All That designer jewelry gallery in Healdsburg, earned an annual salary of $50,0000 <NO1><NO>as the festival's artistic director last year. In the early years of the event, the position was unpaid.

The festival has operated at a deficit of $30,000 a year for the past three years, Templin said.

Surplus funds covered the shortfall in 2008, but not in 2009 and 2010, Templin said.

"The economy has had a huge impact on us in terms of the money sponsors and individuals feel they can donate," Templin said.

The annual operating budget for the festival has ranged from $300,000 to $450,000.

The one program that the festival definitely plans to continue next year is Operation Jazz Band, a week-long workshop that introduces fifth-graders at six schools to jazz music and ends in a public concert.

The festival, devoted to pure jazz rather than "smooth jazz" or other pop-music iterations, held its 12th annual event last June 4-13 at a variety of venues, including wineries, cafes, parks and the Raven Theater.

Templin said the board will survey the community and potential supporters to come up with a sustainable format for the festival in the future, but said the Healdsburg event wouldn't imitate the Sonoma Jazz + festival, which headlines rock and pop acts and very little jazz, if any.

"We will not use the Sonoma Jazz + model," she said.

Templin is a business consultant, jazz fan and festival supporter who recently moved from Mill Valley to Washington, D.C.

The board also includes Healdsburg area leaders Howard Wollner, a retired Senior Vice President of Starbucks Coffee Company; Doug Lipton, environmental scientist and founder of the Lipton Environmental Group; Circe Sher, co-owner of Healdsburg Hotel and h2hotel; and Ernie Shelton, co-owner of Shelton's Market.